Why Core Gamers Hate Free-to-Play

What if Borderlands 2 was the exact same game as it is today, but it was free?

Imagine a Borderlands 2 experience monetized by a player economy instead of a $60 up-front fee + $60 worth of post-launch DLC. You get the full game - the complete experience. If you choose to, you can buy and sell drops on a real-money auction house, with the creators taking a 10% cut. Simple.

It sounds like a friendly, generous system. Would you play it? My guess is I lost many of you at “Real Money Auction House.”

Is there a way to make “freemium” more than a dirty word for hardcore gamers, or will we always push back against anything more than paid cosmetic options?

Let’s take a look at why so many gamers have a problem with freemium, with Borderlands 2 in the hot seat:

These gamers are saying they wouldn’t want to get the exact same experience they paid $60+ for, completely for free. Not only would it be free, but they could actually make money selling drops for classes they aren’t playing or otherwise aren’t interested in.

Isn’t this setup superior, at least from the player’s perspective, in pretty much every way? If you are philosophically opposed to buying or selling virtual goodies, you could just ignore the marketplace and experience all that Borderlands 2 goodness that IGN awarded a 9/10, completely for free.

The truth, as you might guess, is a little more complex. Even if Borderlands 2 were balanced in the exact same way as it is now, introducing real-world dough into the equation changes the perception. And perception is everything.

Player Trust

If Borderlands 2 was free, but 2K made a little money each time players sold Eridium to one another, how long would you have to go without finding any to become suspicious?

This question lies directly at the heart of the problem many core gamers have with the industry’s massive shift towards freemium games. It’s a problem of trust. If you can’t buy Eridium, you would never become suspicious, because there is nothing to be suspicious of. But once it’s for sale, the shop’s mere existence puts the idea into your head.

Even if the Eridium drop rate was absolutely identical (remember, the hypothetical is that this free version of BL2 is exactly the same), it just wouldn’t feel as good. Players, at least some, would worry they were being manipulated. Others would hop onto forums and prove with cold hard data that Eridium is dropping at the same rate it always has. Someone else would inevitably retort that back in the “good old days” when games just cost $60, issues like this didn’t even need to be discussed. Neither group would be wrong.

Even if you ignore real money functions, they intrude into your mind and can ruin immersion.

Even if none of this bothers you - if you’re one of the rational, data-driven gamers happy to put hours into a free Borderlands 2 - there’s still a certain grossness associated with real-money values continually intruding into your mind. When you find a truly badass weapon drop in a $60 Borderlands 2, there’s nothing but happiness. Equip it, and wreck faces.

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Many of us will pay a higher up-front cost to protect the integrity of the play experience.

If you find the same gun in a Borderlands 2 monetized by a player economy, you have to choose if you want to equip it, or tab over to the marketplace and see if it’s worth $5 or another amount of dough high enough to consider selling. Every awesome drop becomes a choice.

There’s a purity in playing a paid game that’s lost in most freemium alternatives. Video games are all about escapism. There’s a certain indecency to thoughts of real-world money intruding into the experience. I believe this is why many gamers prefer a $60 Borderlands 2 experience over a free alternative. Many of us will pay a higher up-front cost to protect the integrity of the play experience.

And this is why many gamers are likely to never fully embrace free-to-play. Even if it’s done right, even if no drop rates or other game balance dials have been tweaked to bring in a few extra dollars, the idea has now been planted in the player’s head. How can is a gamer ever supposed to be sure?

The Devil in the Details

And of course, far too often freemium models aren’t done right to begin with. Many free-to-play multiplayer games include a cash shop with power-up items, undermining the game’s balance. Many freemium games feature artificial barriers put up by the game designers, which players can pay to overcome. Practices like these are where the blanket fear and distrust originate from. Gamers' time is valuable. Pay up to not waste it grinding. Ick! Core gamers are a smart, plugged-in bunch that does its research. They’re a hard group to fool.

This is why some of the biggest and best freemium game success stories have come from some of the game industry’s most trusted game makers. Valve has spent nearly 20 years treating gamers right (and making billions of dollars in the process). So it’s no surprise that gamers were willing to give freemium Team Fortress 2 and DOTA 2 a shot. Valve rewarded this consumer trust with balanced and reasonable money-making mechanisms in both titles. This trust isn't something that can be bought or faked. A game maker's only option is to form a genuine relationship with its customers, instead of wallets from which to squeeze as much short term revenue per user as possible.

Core gamers are increasingly coming around to the idea that freemium game design can actually (gasp) benefit them in a few key ways, and isn't always a pay-to-win scam. In a shooter, MOBA, MMO, or any other genre that relies on an robust and active player-base, the rise of free-to-play has been a boon. Hooked on Lord of the Rings Online or Team Fortress 2 and wanna bring your buddies in? No arm-twisting is necessary. You’re just a free download away from playing together. This is a very cool and very powerful evolution of the traditional “$60 up front” model.

Other Freemium Options

Of course, the vision for a free Borderlands 2 I laid out above isn’t the only way it could be done. If the game were free, but monetized in a way other than player-sold drops, the temptation to sell a fun gun for a few bucks goes away, and the integrity and player trust in the experience could potentially be restored.

It’s a tough proposition, but there are a variety of intriguing options. A free-to-play Borderlands 2 could feature randomly-dropped keys that are used to unlock new areas of Pandora, or players could pay up to unlock them early. Slots for a 5th weapon or 2nd relic could be sold. Free raid bosses could reset once per day, or players could pay a small fee to reset them early. But perhaps the most consumer-friendly, “reasonable” free-to-play model of all is to simply charge for new content.

The problem is that consumer trust in free-to-play games, at least amongst the most plugged-in core gamers, has eroded to the point that game makers can get away with things in a $60 game that players would endlessly howl about if they tried to do it in a freemium release.

If the Borderlands 2 base game were free, but 2K was up-front about charging for new classes, multiple level cap increases, and new bosses/areas, many gamers would likely voice their displeasure.

“We don’t want to be nickle and dimed. Just charge one price and include all the classes and levels. I don’t want to get hooked and then have to pay for a Final Boss.” And so-on.

And yet, the $60 (now $30) Borderlands 2 is charging for all of these things, and Gearbox has largely been praised for their extensive post-launch support!

We now live in a time where giving gamers $75 in high-quality DLC in a paid game is good customer service, but trying to do the same in a freemium game results in distrust and derision.

Perception is everything. Freemium isn't a bad thing just because some scammy games take advantage of weak-willed players, just like $60 games aren't a bad thing just because some very bad ones are released. But for freemium games to ever make real inroads with the core gaming community, they need to find ways to make money without breaking player trust or immersion. I don't want to think about dollar bills when blasting away Skags on Pandora.

It's a tall order - I don't have all the answers. Until game makers figure it out, I'll keep buying games for full price and playing to my heart's content.

Justin Davis is the second or third best-looking Editor at IGN. You can follow him on Twitter at @ErrorJustin and on IGN.